HMS Euryalus was a fourth-rate wooden-hulled screw frigate of the Royal Navy, with a 400HP steam engine that could make over 12 knots. She was launched at Chatham in 1853, was 212 feet long, displaced 3125 tons and had a complement of 515 (this varied slightly as the Naval Standards varied). At the time of the Bombardment of Kagoshima she carried 35 guns, not counting approximately 16 carronades. Seventeen of her guns were breech-loading Armstrong Guns. She carried 230 tons of coal, and provisions for about three months, together with over 70 tons of shot and shell.[3]

In December 1853. G. Ramsay was appointed captain. The ship served in the Baltic Campaign in 1854-1855. As part of the Anglo-French fleet, she took part in the bombardment of Sveaborg (now Suomenlinna, Finland) on 7th -9th August, 1855 [4]

Under the command of J. W. Tarleton, she served in the Mediterranean in 1858.[2] The same year Prince Alfred was appointed to the ship as a midshipman. In 1860, the ship visited the Cape of Good Hope.